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[Case Study] SiteScout Media Buy + Clickbank

by typoo999
51 replies
Hey Guys,

I'm playing around on Sitescout for days now, burnt a lot of money already, but learnt a lot of things too!

Currently I have $170 on my account, and I decided to make a small case study here with Media Buy + Clickbank direct linking. I have set up the campaign already, it looks promising so far.

Right now I'm testing creatives, and optimizing the whole campaign, I hope my $170 will be enough to get even a few conversions, I don't expect to come out with profit.

You can see the current stats below, its early to say anything about it but it looks good so far, I'm in the optimizing pharse so I'll let it run for a while and optimize later, and again, I hope my $170 will be enough to test & optimize it to even get some conversions.

->> Stats
#buy #case #clickbank #media #sitescout #study
  • Profile picture of the author Gordon P
    The image is too small. Other than that looking forward to the results
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    • Profile picture of the author typoo999
      Originally Posted by Gordon P View Post

      The image is too small. Other than that looking forward to the results
      Edited! Thanks for yoru reply!
      Signature
      Boom shakalaka!
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  • Profile picture of the author PRBandit
    What happened with the other $330?
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    • Profile picture of the author typoo999
      Originally Posted by PRBandit View Post

      What happened with the other $330?
      Burnt it while experiencing CTR optimization and RON campaign...
      Signature
      Boom shakalaka!
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  • Profile picture of the author deuces81
    Thanks for the honest report. I'm new at this so it helps me to look at case studies. I was actually thinking about sitescout myself but the $500 minimum scared me off.


    Any chance you can share the first $330 stats?

    Thanks
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    • Profile picture of the author typoo999
      Originally Posted by sexyandiknowit View Post

      Thanks for the honest report. I'm new at this so it helps me to look at case studies. I was actually thinking about sitescout myself but the $500 minimum scared me off.


      Any chance you can share the first $330 stats?

      Thanks
      Yea, sure, just PM me and I'll send the stats soon!
      Signature
      Boom shakalaka!
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  • Profile picture of the author typoo999
    --- Update ---

    Okay, so... I recieved 111 clicks, 0 conversions, 0 order form impressions. Spent $44 already, $128 left.

    The product I was promoting is Fat Loss Factor, here are my SiteScout stats -> click

    I have started optimizing, my average CPC is almost below 30 cents now, and im still optimizing.

    I have stopped the campaign because I read after Fat Loss Factor, and it seems its just doesn't convert these days, an other warrior sent 4,000 hops to the sales page with media buys and he got 0 conversions, while a few months ago, he had a 100% ROI with the same product!

    What I'm going to do: I have $128 left and I changed to a new Clickbank product, with the same media buy campaign (waiting for being reviewed by SiteScout).

    Depending on my current budget and stats, I should recieve more than 350 clicks on the new product (depends on how much can I optimize the ads).

    Let's see how its going.

    P.S.: Next month I'll create one more case study with CPA and I expect good results with it. I'll try both direct linking and using own landing page catching e-mails with front-end & back-end offers.

    --- Edit ---

    New link approved by SiteScout!
    Signature
    Boom shakalaka!
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  • Profile picture of the author Gordon P
    You should have split tested between direct linking and LP. Or using a squeeze page to capture their email.
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  • Profile picture of the author JustinDupre
    There are a lot of sites on SS that can give you a fantastic CTR but absolutely zero conversions on any sort of long lead gen or sales campaigns. You'd be best off collecting emails, anyways, with your own LPs. You've got a ton of sites with very broad untargetted traffic so the offer you pick needs to work well on a broad scale. It's very similar to mobile traffic, ATM.
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    • Profile picture of the author typoo999
      Originally Posted by JustinDupre View Post

      There are a lot of sites on SS that can give you a fantastic CTR but absolutely zero conversions on any sort of long lead gen or sales campaigns. You'd be best off collecting emails, anyways, with your own LPs. You've got a ton of sites with very broad untargetted traffic so the offer you pick needs to work well on a broad scale. It's very similar to mobile traffic, ATM.
      Yea... I've tried a new potty training offer on parenting and women sites before, it didn't work. Now I run the new campaign on sites where similar ads run for over 100 days (checked with WhatRunsWhere) so I hope at least 1 conversion lol.

      My current stats (still optimizing):

      0.15% average CTR
      $0.20 average CPC
      56 clicks - 0 conversions

      I expect at least 550 or more clicks depending on the current stats.
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  • Profile picture of the author typoo999
    --- Update ---

    - Ad optimization going well so far, the CTR and CPC is way better already than before.

    ->>> Click here for Sitescout Stats <<<-

    - Still 0 conversion on Clickbank.!
    Signature
    Boom shakalaka!
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  • Profile picture of the author PPC-Coach
    So basically you've got the mechanics of using site scout down now.

    Cool.

    But you're not converting because you're not being creative. You can't just direct link to fat loss factor and expect to convert with media buys. Like Justin already said, try building a list in the fat loss niche then offer them things.

    Try building out a following on a facebook page in a niche you love and are passionate about, then monetize that page later.
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    • Profile picture of the author typoo999
      Originally Posted by PPC-Coach View Post

      So basically you've got the mechanics of using site scout down now.

      Cool.

      But you're not converting because you're not being creative. You can't just direct link to fat loss factor and expect to convert with media buys. Like Justin already said, try building a list in the fat loss niche then offer them things.

      Try building out a following on a facebook page in a niche you love and are passionate about, then monetize that page later.
      Thanks for your reply, yes that would be the best way, I just saw others having success with direct linking and I was curious so I took it.
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      Boom shakalaka!
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  • Profile picture of the author typoo999
    --- Update ---

    After 124 clicks and no conversions promoting the new product and with others recommendations, I decided to make a good looking landing page to get e-mails, and build a fat loss e-mail list.

    Let's see how it goes now, waiting for link approval.
    Signature
    Boom shakalaka!
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  • Profile picture of the author Greedy
    Try stick to CPA if you can, converts much better than ClickBank for the major niches.
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    • Profile picture of the author typoo999
      Originally Posted by Greedy View Post

      Try stick to CPA if you can, converts much better than ClickBank for the major niches.
      Yea, thanks! Thats what I plan to do next month!
      Signature
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      • Profile picture of the author lucasvera
        Hello friend, I am following your case, as I'm getting in Media Buying and know not that start RTB platform.

        Anyway I recommend you to use CPA for DL strategie, like most I told you.
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    • Profile picture of the author ZephyrIon
      Originally Posted by Greedy View Post

      Try stick to CPA if you can, converts much better than ClickBank for the major niches.
      and she speaks! the truth!
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    • Profile picture of the author hbsjcd3
      Originally Posted by Greedy View Post

      Try stick to CPA if you can, converts much better than ClickBank for the major niches.
      Agreed... CPA converts for me 5 times higher than Clickbank. Clickbank has its place and time, but its NOT the ideal for all campaigns.
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  • Profile picture of the author firebringer
    Originally Posted by typoo999 View Post

    Hey Guys,

    I'm playing around on Sitescout for days now, burnt a lot of money already, but learnt a lot of things too!

    Currently I have $170 on my account, and I decided to make a small case study here with Media Buy + Clickbank direct linking. I have set up the campaign already, it looks promising so far.

    Right now I'm testing creatives, and optimizing the whole campaign, I hope my $170 will be enough to get even a few conversions, I don't expect to come out with profit.

    You can see the current stats below, its early to say anything about it but it looks good so far, I'm in the optimizing pharse so I'll let it run for a while and optimize later, and again, I hope my $170 will be enough to test & optimize it to even get some conversions.

    ->> Stats
    typoo999,

    Interesting experiment, and great of you to put up such a case study.

    Just curious - Are you using SiteScout to attract traffic to your website/squeeze page? Or are you using SiteScout to retarget the visitors who come to your website (through SEO, social etc)?

    Seems like the former looking at your eCPC rates.

    Have you tried using SiteScout to retarget your visitors? Would love to follow such a case study.
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    • Profile picture of the author roley
      Interesting Stats.

      I started used sitescout today for the first time.

      Results have been dismal to say the least. I capped my day so I didn't over spend and spread it out across the day

      lots of impressions, few clicks. 19 clicks and $50 spent to me that is pretty bad.

      Now I could change my creatives and try again another $50 tommorow or stop the campaign and yank the rest of my money out minus there 15% admin fee and then try google display ads and blog ads ( might work better )

      It's a tough old game banner advertising.

      In your mind you think. Great get my site seen on leading websites for little amounts but if it don't convert. It's point less

      So yeah not sure what to do. Pay per click is pointless as unless you have a PRODUCT on the backend to cover your cost and it converts you are going to spend more on each click as google is a nightmare. ( no idea how they work, its like trying to figure out a rubix cube with those folks and their support sucks )

      Im using sitescout for listing building, FREE stuff but so far its not converting out of those 19 clicks zero signed up. And my landing page converts high usually even with just 5 clicks. So im guessing its the type of traffic hitting the site. Most are probably just in that. What is this? mode. click.... oh and then hit back button.
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      • Profile picture of the author Gourango
        I am not sure what is wrong with Sitescout but I had a very bad taste on my first day of campaign and i had to keep my campaign offline immediately and tried to reach tech support unfortunately they dont support after 6 pm ET. Later next day early morning at 1 am I found that i have already lost 130$ in few hrs of campaign (though i have set daily limit of 25$) with mere 17 clicks and 0 optins and forget about sales(there were few clicks from ebay with Zero Impression and Zero money spent, that's funny). It's completely disaster unlike i heard about all good stuff about this website. I had to cancel my account and asked for refund my rest of amount as it may be worthy for big player to test and pick sites which work for their niche.
        Note: If you press them hard, they will waive of 15% admin charge. I also manged to get back 60$ as it was problem on Sitescout end as technically in 2 days (though its like few hrs) it should have only charged me 50$ but it charged 130$ (remaining 20$ was spent on one more RON campaign)
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  • Profile picture of the author Gordon P
    ^What was your CTR? I guess it was under 0,1. How much did you pay for the CPM?
    I would suggest not to switch your traffic source. Keep your current campaign on sitescout and optimize it. 19 clicks are far too less, to make any decision.
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  • Profile picture of the author WeavingThoughts
    Conversions?
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  • Profile picture of the author PRBandit
    roly, you are paying over $2 per click! It is your banner that is the problem.

    You should get $0.20 - $0.30 perclick !

    Then 19 clicks would cost you like $5 instead of $50. And if you tweak your landing page to get them to WANT them to subscribe. you can get like 2-3 sign ups for the $5

    Remember, PUT THEIR PROBLEM in their face and offer a solution. that solution being your subscription
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    • Profile picture of the author roley
      Originally Posted by PRBandit View Post

      roly, you are paying over $2 per click! It is your banner that is the problem.

      You should get $0.20 - $0.30 perclick !

      Then 19 clicks would cost you like $5 instead of $50. And if you tweak your landing page to get them to WANT them to subscribe. you can get like 2-3 sign ups for the $5

      Remember, PUT THEIR PROBLEM in their face and offer a solution. that solution being your subscription
      I ran it again today. Different ads. And yes i did target my demographic

      Here's todays results

      $31.88 spent for 28 clicks 0 conversions

      #22.82 spent for 7 clicks 0 conversions

      Ive stopped running. Asked for money in account back and they are going to do that.

      I cant speak badly about sitescout as their support is 110%, i wish googles was like that. Its outstanding. And there interface is excellent.

      It very well be down to me. either way I can usually get a feel for how things are going from spending $100 and i have done that now. It's not converting. Which means I need to use a company like optimizely to optimize my page see whats going on.

      I was using clickmeter ( highly recommend, amazing details they give you on uniques, non uniques, spiders/bots ) very good service.

      Will now test googledisplay ads
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      • Profile picture of the author Penn86
        Thanks warriors for giving solid advice and case studies here. I considered doing media buying with direct linking to CB/CJ products, but now realize that may be a waste of money. Glad to hear that SiteScout is good. As far as RTB's go, I understand Clickcertain is very good to pay less for ads but does cost $147/mo to belong.
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  • Profile picture of the author PPC-Coach
    Also on site scout ONLY show your ads on sites that match your demographic for the offer. Don't be tempted to go RON or just randomly pick sites that have nothing to do with what you're advertising. Use the free tools available to get an indication of the demographics of the offer and of the sites you're looking at targeting.

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  • Profile picture of the author junkdna
    Yeah, profiting from direct linking is a pipe dream, with media buys. You must collect emails.
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    • Profile picture of the author Penn86
      Originally Posted by junkdna View Post

      Yeah, profiting from direct linking is a pipe dream, with media buys. You must collect emails.
      According to Mike Colella he sold over $8million worth of ClickBank products over a 5 year period doing direct linking, so apparently it can be done. Anyone else getting solid conversions doing direct linking through media buys? Thanks.
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      • Profile picture of the author Nikola Cvrtnjak
        Originally Posted by Penn86 View Post

        According to Mike Colella he sold over $8million worth of ClickBank products over a 5 year period doing direct linking, so apparently it can be done. Anyone else getting solid conversions doing direct linking through media buys? Thanks.
        Yap, it's possible to make campaigns positive direct linking but I suggest bigger testing budget, quality products with good LP's and best chance to make it profitable is to pick rebill offers.

        On the other hand, IMO, the best way to do it is to build a retargeting list + email list on RTB platforms. When you do that, you can make a killing if you are creative...

        One example. Make a retargeting campaign about XY product for few days. After that send an email about that "crazy" product that is all over the internet (ofc. ad's about that product following them previous few days with your retargeting campaign)... The smart ones will know exactly what I mean

        Guys, don't be lazy. At least make presale lp's if you are lazy to make a list...
        Think about it, by putting few hours extra work you lower your chances of losing your money. You can at least get it back in the long run with a list . If you just direct link, 99% of people (or in this case 100%) will just leave the site and there is no way to market to those people again.

        Hope this helps.

        Cheers.
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  • Profile picture of the author S Randolf
    Hi typoo999

    Your conversions are very bad in this case.
    But I can understand why you were direct linking to the Fatloss Factor landingpage because Fatloss Factor makes you believe that their landingpage converts very well.

    I wish you more luck in near future with other campaigns.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kenny T
    I am pretty new to mediabuying too. I am currently waiting to go to Gauher Chaudhury's Media Buying seminar and get some expert training. I wanna invest some money on mediabuying and lets see how it goes. I know there is buysellads and sitescout so I have my research hat on media buys.
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  • Profile picture of the author espresso
    any news on how lead capturing went
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  • Profile picture of the author JoeMack
    Has anyone made ANY conversions using the traffic generated by Sitescout?


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  • Profile picture of the author believemarketing
    Avoid directlinking, unless you know for sure offer is awesome and would convert...

    I used to directlink alot, but then its only because I was lazy to make LP & all...
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  • Profile picture of the author JaniG
    To the guy that said he got 28 clicks and no conversions. Lol you expect to get a sale from 28 clicks?

    Be more realistic and wait till you get at least 500 - 1,000 clicks before you expect sny conversions and before 'asking for your money back'

    And who asks for their money back from paid advertising? Lol

    This is cold traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author chintz24
    See it is as simple as this.
    Your budget was less. For media buys 500$ is also less.

    I try with minimum 1000$
    And I don't know your campaign logistics but I know this - you have done good work. However media buys is the toughest of every source and you need to have a larger budget.

    Gone are the days where you just direct link and make money. Ask any of my students because all of them and me we have tried direct linking and doesnt work simply because of the competition
    Its called SATURATION.
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  • Profile picture of the author chintz24
    Also avoid site scout now

    Its gotten popular and everyone is going to be using it.
    Its like trafficjunky. You are paying much more than you should be paying. Go with other media buying agencies or go direct
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  • Profile picture of the author Brandon Sean
    Hi OP

    I HIGHLY recommend not Direct linking with Clickbank at all! I would do A Weight Loss Trial offer, they should convert waaay better.

    Although I do Clickbank stuff , I must admit its much much harder to convert vs other offers

    I currently have 1 campaign this is a weight loss CPA offer with nearly 300% ROI
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  • Profile picture of the author grandstar
    I have been contemplating sitescout for some time. this writeup gives me a pretty good idea which way i should go.
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  • Profile picture of the author Cash37
    Sitescout only works if you know your CPA target going in. You can't be fumbling around with your numbers after the money is rolling.
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  • Profile picture of the author webapex
    In one interview Chad Hamzeh (the Traffic Black Book guy) said the biggest issue with remnant traffic from RTB services is low impression priority, a site visitor may only see your banner after the site and traffic broker have served up their premium customer's content, your act may come up at the end of the playbill after the visitor has ad exhaustion, he further said that other marketers who have succeeded using RTB were generally using a rep. to find them the choice spots.
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    • Profile picture of the author cobwab
      If you are not split testing you are just wasting your money.
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  • Profile picture of the author LegacyInc
    WOW how much did you start with, and why do you think there are no conversions so far?
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  • Profile picture of the author johnbrown12
    I'll say in one key line...List building is the key of success...best of luck
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  • Profile picture of the author listermint
    Any updates on your project?
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  • Profile picture of the author Roshan C
    Subscribed. Nice case study.
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  • Profile picture of the author truebluesf
    Banned
    I think using RTB to promote a click bank product is a horrible idea. RTB works well for products that need impulse buying or if you want to do retargeting. Also, the fact that most CB products require the audience to read a long sales page doesn't help. And also the products could be expensive, too.

    I think pop-under traffic is better for CB product.
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  • Profile picture of the author Robinsh123
    I would suggest try to stick with the CPA offers because that converts mostly without costing your traffic while the ClickBank products comes with big price tag so better write reviews for them and hope for the conversions.
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